Christchurch Miami Audio Podcast

Can a 2,000-year-old book really stand up to modern scrutiny — or is the Bible just a collection of "cleverly devised myths"?

In this eighth sermon in our spring apologetics series What About?, Pastor Kent Keller takes on one of the hardest questions skeptics and Christians wrestle with: is the Bible actually reliable? Kent walks through the textual evidence — comparing New Testament manuscript count and copy-gap against ancient sources like Homer's Iliad and Caesar's Gallic Wars — then turns to the eyewitness testimony of Peter and John themselves.

Peter wrote that the apostles "did not follow cleverly devised myths" but were eyewitnesses of Jesus' majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration. John, writing against early Gnostic heresy, insisted he saw Jesus' physical body with his own eyes. And hundreds of resurrection eyewitnesses still living when the gospels circulated were never refuted — not by the religious leaders who hated Jesus, not by the Roman soldiers who crucified Him, not by anyone.

But Kent's sharpest challenge is to a culture where 68% of Americans read the Bible less than once a year: if you don't open it, it does you no good. Hebrews 4:12 calls God's Word "living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword" — but only if you read it.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFSTsvUlgg

📖 Read the blog: https://christchurchmiami.org/blog/2026/06/04/is-the-bible-really-reliable

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

If God is all good, all loving, and all powerful — why is there so much sin, suffering, and evil in the world?

In this seventh sermon in our spring apologetics series What About?, Pastor Kent Keller takes on the hardest question Christians and skeptics share. From 1 Peter 4:12–19, Kent walks us through three movements: don't be surprised by suffering, don't be unprepared for what comes next, and don't lose sight of the final outcome.

The Bible was written by suffering people to suffering people. God himself, in Jesus, entered our suffering first — and the pattern that runs through the whole biblical story is suffering, then judgment, then glory. As former Senator Ben Sasse has said, facing his own stage-four cancer: "There are no maverick molecules in the universe." Nothing in your story is outside God's care.

This message lands with Andrew Murray's four anchors for the seasons when you don't know what to do next — and with the gospel reminder that Jesus walked the road of suffering first so that you would not walk it alone.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bD-dEwtr84

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

How do you pass faith to your kids when life won't slow down?

Pastor James Drake — preaching from the field during his current Army Chaplain deployment — answers one of the most pastoral questions parents ask: how do we hand on a living faith in a culture engineered to crowd it out?

Drawing on Deuteronomy 6:4-9 — the Great Shema — and Jesus' citation of it in Mark 12:29-30 as the greatest commandment, this message walks through three movements: who actually sits on the throne of our hearts, what it means to love God with everything, and how that love becomes a rhythm woven into ordinary family life — sitting, walking, lying down, rising. The sermon lands not on "try harder" but on the better news of a Savior who fulfilled the Shema we never could and writes it on our hearts from the inside out.

"Faith isn't an event you perform. It's a rhythm you live."

— Preached at Christchurch Miami on May 17, 2026.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

What if science and faith were never actually divorced — and the people who told you they were got the story backwards?

Pastor Kent Keller takes us through one of the most contested cultural narratives of our day: the story that science and the Christian faith are at war.

Drawing on Genesis 1, Psalm 19, and the work of modern thinkers like John Lennox, this message moves through three movements: how Bible-believing Christians actually built modern science (Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Pascal, Faraday), how the cosmos itself testifies to a Creator (anthropic principle, fine-tuning, the genetic code), and where science reaches its limit — culminating in a Mother’s Day landing on Psalm 139 and the truth that a mother’s love for an unborn child she has never met is the closest thing in this life to the unconditional love of God.

“Science can tell you a lot about what and how. Science can tell you nothing about who and why. And for that you need God.”

— Preached at Christchurch Miami on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2026.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

Don't all religions lead to the same place?

If you're following Jesus, you've probably been asked that question — by a coworker, a family member, maybe even your own quiet doubts. On Missions Sunday, special guest Missionary Edwin Martinez — who has spent 50 years training evangelists across Latin America and the Muslim world — sits with us in that question and walks us back to what Scripture actually says.

From John 14:6, Acts 4:12, and Luke 14:25-33, Edwin shows us three things every believer needs to know: that Jesus claims to be the only way (and why that's good news, not narrow news), what it actually costs to follow him, and why the church he's building cannot fail.

"It's paid for. It's paid for. We don't have to pay for it."

This is the kind of teaching that strengthens what you already believe and equips you to share it with the people around you. As a faith family on mission, our prayer is that you walk away anchored more deeply in Jesus and ready to take your next step with him.

Preached at Christchurch Miami on Missions Sunday, May 3, 2026.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

Sermon | From Anxiety to Peace | Pastor David McCloud

In Week 3 of our spring series What About...?, guest preacher Pastor David McCloud - a longtime PCA pastor and licensed counselor at Granada Presbyterian Church - opens Philippians 4:6-7 to walk through what Scripture actually teaches about a worried heart. Drawing from his own years as a counselor, two illustrations from his own struggle with anxiety, and the moment Jesus sweat drops like blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, he gives us a five-step pattern for the path from worry to peace: acknowledge it, dig to the root, face it honestly, deliver it to God in prayer, and preach the gospel to yourself.

Because biblical peace isn't the absence of trouble - it's the presence of God. And if Jesus actually rose from the dead, anxiety does not control you.

Watch the full message and walk with us this week as we move from anxious hearts to the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Thank you for walking with your Christchurch family.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

You Are Salt and Light | Pastor Kent Keller

Identity is the foundation of obedience — and for the Christchurch family, our calling to be salt and light begins not with striving, but with remembering who Jesus has already made us to be.

In this message, Pastor Kent Keller opens Matthew 5:13-16 and walks us through the truth that has changed everything: Jesus does not tell us to become salt and light — He tells us we already are.

Through Scripture, the context of the Sermon on the Mount, and the everyday outworking of Christian life, we are reminded that our witness is not a task added to our faith, but the natural overflow of who we are in Christ.

Because Christ has called us His own, our lives carry flavor, preserve what is good, and shine a light that leads others to our Father in heaven.

As a church family, this truth anchors our mission to live as a faithful, visible presence in Miami — at work, at home, with our neighbors, and with the people God has placed around us.

This message will encourage you to:

* rest in your identity as a child of God

* live out your faith with confidence in everyday life

* see your workplace, school, and home as places of ministry

* shine with integrity, kindness, and the hope of the Gospel

* reflect the goodness of God to the people around you

At Christchurch, we believe the Gospel is not just something we say — it's the life we live together on mission.

May this message strengthen your walk with Jesus and remind you that because of who He is, you already are who He has called you to be.

We are grateful to grow in faith together as one church family, committed to loving God, loving people, and making Christ known.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? | Pastor James Drake

The resurrection of Jesus is not only the foundation of our faith — it is the source of our hope, our purpose, and our mission as the Christchurch family.

In this message, Pastor James Drake opens 1 Corinthians 15 and walks us through the truth that has changed everything: Jesus Christ is risen.

Through Scripture, historical evidence, fulfilled prophecy, and the testimony of transformed lives, we are reminded that the resurrection is not simply a doctrine we believe, but the living reality that shapes who we are as followers of Jesus.

Because the tomb is empty, our faith is secure, our sins are forgiven, and our future is held in Christ.

As a church family, this truth anchors our mission to help people find hope, healing, and new life in Jesus. The resurrection gives us confidence in suffering, peace in uncertainty, and boldness to share the Gospel with those around us.

This message will encourage you to:

* deepen your confidence in the truth of Scripture

* strengthen your faith in the risen Christ

* remember the power of grace to transform lives

* live with greater courage, purpose, and hope

* embrace your calling to be part of Christ’s mission in our city and beyond

At Christchurch, we believe the Gospel is not just good news for eternity, but good news for today.

May this message strengthen your walk with Jesus and remind you that because He lives, anything is possible.

We are grateful to grow in faith together as one church family, committed to loving God, loving people, and making Christ known.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

Isaiah 53 stands as one of the most compelling prophecies in Scripture, written centuries before Jesus was born yet describing His suffering and sacrifice with astonishing detail. The prophet describes a suffering servant who would grow up as a tender plant from dry ground - humble origins that perfectly match Jesus' birth in Nazareth, a backwater town to a carpenter's family. This servant would be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows who took upon Himself all human grief and pain.

The prophecy remarkably describes crucifixion before it was even invented, speaking of one who would be pierced for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Through His stripes, we find healing and peace - not merely the absence of conflict, but complete reconciliation between God and humanity. Like sheep who have wandered from their shepherd, we all needed rescue from our foolish and dangerous rebellion against God. At the cross, all our sins were poured out on Jesus, and God's wrath was satisfied through His perfect sacrifice.

Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16, serving as both the sacrificial lamb whose blood paid for sin and the scapegoat who carried sins away outside the camp. Though He could have defended Himself during His trials, He remained silent like a lamb before its shearers, seeing His mission through to completion. When He cried "It is finished," He declared victory - the perfect suffering servant had accomplished perfect salvation through His perfect sacrifice. This demands our response today, challenging us never to become comfortable with the cross but to live as those purchased by the blood of the Lamb.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.

Palm Sunday begins the most momentous week in human history, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey during Passover week in 33 AD. Fresh from raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus entered the crowded city not as a conquering military leader but as the Prince of Peace, fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy about the humble king. The enthusiastic crowds laid cloaks and palm branches before him, shouting Hosanna, which means save us.

Jesus' choice of a donkey was deeply symbolic, representing peace rather than war. His disciples' simple obedience in securing the animal demonstrated his supernatural authority. The question arises: what would you lay at Jesus' feet? People bring different things - their praises and worship, recognizing him as Lord and Savior; their questions and doubts about faith; their pain and suffering, knowing Jesus understands because he experienced human suffering; or their rejection and abandonment, since Jesus was despised and rejected by men.

The dramatic reversal from Sunday's triumph to Friday's tragedy reminds us that the same crowds shouting Hosanna would cry Crucify him just days later. Human praise is fickle, but God's plan is unchanging. Though Friday brought darkness and seeming defeat, another Sunday was coming - Easter Sunday with the resurrection that would make the world right again for the first time since Adam and Eve's disobedience.

Your next step

• Plan your visit: Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall.
• Get the Christchurch Miami app for iPhone and Android.
• Go deeper with the daily devotionals and the group guide for this sermon.